CANBERRA (Kashmir English): Snapchat has deactivated over 415,000 Australian accounts belonging to users under 16 as of late January 2026, according to media reports.
This move comes in response to Australia’s landmark social media ban, which took effect on December 10, 2025.
Beyond Snapchat’s individual figures, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner reported that tech giants have collectively disabled approximately 4.7 million accounts across major platforms like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube.
Companies failing to take “reasonable steps” to enforce the age limit face significant fines of up to A$49.5 million (approx. US$34 million).
Despite the blocks, Snapchat warned that current age-estimation tools—accurate only within a two-to-three-year margin—allow some minors to bypass safeguards while mistakenly locking out some users over 16.
Snapchat, Meta jointly press Australian government
Snapchat joined Meta in urging the Australian government to mandate app-store-level age verification as a more effective, centralized barrier against circumvention.
Snapchat maintains that as a messaging app for close friends, it should not be subject to the same blanket bans as broader social platforms.
“We continue to lock more accounts daily,” it said in an online statement.
But the law leaves “significant gaps”, Snapchat said, arguing that age estimation technology was only accurate to within two to three years.
“In practice, this means some young people under 16 may be able to bypass protections, potentially leaving them with reduced safeguards, while others over 16 may incorrectly lose access.”
Snapchat joined Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta in calling on Australia to require app stores to check users’ ages before allowing downloads.
“Creating a centralised verification system at the app-store level would allow for more consistent protection and higher barriers to circumventing the law,” Snapchat said.
The platform opposed the outright ban as the right approach.
Snapchat said it understood Australia’s objectives and wanted to protect people online, but did not agree its platform should be covered by the social media ban.
“In the case of Snapchat — which is primarily a messaging app used by young people to stay connected with close friends and family — we do not believe that cutting teens off from these relationships makes them safer, happier, or otherwise better off,” it said.
